(CNN) -- By the time he reached the White House, Bill Clinton's
appetite was legend. He loved hamburgers, steaks, chicken enchiladas,
barbecue and french fries but wasn't too picky. At one campaign stopin
New Hampshire, he reportedly bought a dozen doughnuts and wasworking his
way through the box until an aide stopped him.

Former President Clinton now considers himself a vegan. He's dropped
more than 20 pounds, and he says he's healthier than ever. Hisdramatic
dietary transformation took almost two decades and came aboutonly after
a pair of heart procedures and some advice from a trusteddoctor.

His dietary saga began in 1993, when first lady Hillary Clinton
decided to inaugurate a new, healthier diet for her husband. In a
meeting, she asked Dr. Dean Ornish to work with the White House chefs,
who were accustomed to high fat, French cuisine.

"An epiphany is the sudden realization or comprehension of
the larger essence or meaning of something. The term is used in
either a philosophical or literal sense to signify that the claimant has
'found the last piece of the puzzle and now sees the whole picture,' or
has new information or experience, often insignificant by itself, that
illuminates a deeper or numinous foundational frame of reference."
@ @ @ @ @ @ @

When President Clinton had his famous heart attack
in September of 2004, Dr. John McDougall wrote him a letter which made
all vegans proud and which seems to have worked:

William Jefferson
Clinton The William J. Clinton Foundation 55 West 125th St. New
York, NY 10027

Dear Bill:

The chance you will ask for my
opinion on your pending surgery this week for blockages of your heart
arteries is about the same as you escaping the heart bypass business.
Regardless, for the sake of others and to clear my conscience by at least
trying, I will take this opportunity to share ten challenging thoughts
with you.

1) Don't be rushed into making a decision � think about it
� they gave you several days already � so immediate surgery is
obviously not critical � you have time to learn more.

Over 80% of men
in the USA by your age (58 years) have coronary artery disease which can
be found by an angiogram, and over half with your cholesterol level (233
mg/dl) have at least one coronary artery already closed by 50% or more �
in other words, they are fair game for bypass surgeons. Fortunately,
coronary artery disease is not very deadly � the over-all risk of death
from this disease for people with affected arteries is less than 2% per
year, untreated. Compare these facts with what you have been frightened
into believing this past weekend.

2) Nearly four decades of
scientific research show coronary artery bypass surgery fails to save
lives in most cases. This is because the goal of this surgery is to go
around very stable (rock hard) blockages; however, these firm, partial
obstructions to heart blood flow are not the life-threatening problem �
and your doctors know this well-established fact. These big blockages
rarely close down the arteries and almost never cause heart attacks.
However, most of the attention is focused on these pseudo-villains found
on your angiogram because the result of their discovery feeds money into
the heart businesses.

3) The culprit lesions are tiny � invisible
to the angiogram � \sores (volatile plaques) which explode inside your
arteries � suddenly forming an occluding blood clot (thrombosis). Surgery
does nothing to stop these lethal events. Fortunately, because the
lesions are recently formed, soft, and active, this deadly side of heart
disease is also easily amenable to simple methods.

4) These little
time bombs (volatile plaques) can be quieted down quickly with a healthy
diet and judicious use of cholesterol-lowering medications. Plus, a baby
aspirin will immediately thin your blood and make the formation of a
potentially lethal blood clot much less likely if a plaque were to burst.
5) You have a reversible disease, Bill � this is not concrete in your
arteries. Living tissues heal and your body will fight to stay alive. Now
is the time to talk to your friend Dr. Dean Ornish. Regardless of whether
or not you have the surgery, you are going to have to change back to the
low-fat, no-cholesterol diet Dr.Ornish taught you several years ago.
Read my June 2003 newsletter article: Cleaning Out Your Arteries.

6) The real indications for bypass surgery are: a) incapacitating chest
pain and/or b) damage to your left ventricle (heart chamber) so that you
eject 50% or less of your blood with each heart beat. Every cardiologist
and bypass surgeon knows this. From what I have read you have neither
of these legitimate indications for surgery.

7) You are known for
your wit and intellect. This surgery causes brain damage. Measurement of
chemical products released into the spinal fluid during surgery shows
that 100% of people suffer brain damage. In most cases the changes are
subtle � like personality disorders, or you may not be able to remember
names and numbers as well. A study in the February 2001 issue of the New
England Journal of Medicine found 42 percent of patients five years after
surgery had a 20% decrease in brain function. My experience has been that
doctors mislead patients into believing this is not an important problem.
8) There is a real possibility that bypass surgery could interfere
with another of your well-known attributes. Erectile dysfunction has been
reported to be caused by bypass surgery. (Don't you just hate it when
people hit below the belt?)

9) Your most recent attempt at weight
loss, the South Beach Diet, contributed to your present troubles. Steak,
chicken, eggs, and Canadian bacon consumed without limitation are bad
for your arteries, Bill. Even the author, Arthur Agatston, MD, must know
this � after all he, himself, takes statin drugs to lower his
cholesterol, and fish oil and aspirin to help reduce his personal risk of
a heart attack.

10) You have always been interested in better
healthcare for Americans and now you have an opportunity to make a real
difference � stand up to this big business and demand the truth before
you make your decision to have or postpone surgery. Right now you are
being lied to � mostly by omission of vital information from doctors �
you can verify everything I have written to you within a few short hours
on the Internet (http://www.nlm.nih.gov).
Your example could save more lives and people from suffering
unnecessarily than any action you could have ever taken while you were in
office. Make the most out of this apparent set back in your health.